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Wintergreen/ECS Barebones 29.99 AR

In TD's defense, the last two items I bought from them had $30 rebates each..and I received both of them.

Of course, I may be the fortunate one out of a 1,000...which seems to be the case if you read these forums...... 🙂
 
I took the plunge, having nothing unfavorable to say about Tiger Direct after numerous orders and a few rebate deals. This is a killer deal if the rebates come through, even with $24.00 for shipping.

However, do note the motherboard rebate form (2nd-N52-3015-dec.pdf) is for a different ECS motherboard: ECS 661FX-M instead of the advertised PM800-M2.

I'm not going to worry about it at this stage, because the same thing happened a few months ago. Tiger provided the wrong rebate form for download, but it was corrected a few hours later.
 
I feel dirty now, didn't think fast enough to realize it was TD before I clicked.....I'm now convinced someone flips coins to decide if they will honor YOUR rebate. Heads you get the rebate, tails you didn't send the upc or out of the purchase date or not postmarked in time or just plain old never hear from them again.
 
I'm debating about getting this deal. I got the Soyo Socket 478 White Barebones Kit and love it but this system doesn't look nearly as good.

1. I never heard of Wintergreen although it makes no difference to me.
2. One ugly CDRW
3. ECS MB - what model ? (KM800-M2 doesn't seem to be a valid model number) KM800 chipset ?
4. Does MB have onboard video and sound ?
5. Is a modem really included. The "what's in the box" list doesn't show it.

The end cost is approx $47 (delivered)

What would it cost to buy individual components ?

Case 30
MB 40
CDRW 20
SPKS 5
KB 5
Modem 5 ?
Mouse 2

It looks to me like about $107 worth of cheap components, so you're saving about 60 bux, give or take.

Hey, $60 is a nice savings but who is going to use those cheap speakers or ball mouse ? And a socket 478 processor is quite a bit more expensive than it's AMD counterpart - unless you go the Cerery route 🙂
 
ECS MB - what model ? (KM800-M2 doesn't seem to be a valid model number) KM800 chipset ?
Click to expand...
The KM800 thing is a misprint. The motherboard is ECS PM800-M2 based on VIA PM800/VT8237, which should compare favorably to the SIS661FX. This is quite a decent motherboard for the money, ZipZoomFly lists it for $49.99 + tax, which in my case works out to be almost exactly the same price as the Wintergreen bundle after rebates and shipping.

ECS Taiwan website shows CPU support for this motherboard certified up to Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition and 3.2GHz Prescott.

The case is reasonably attractive to me, not the Transformers/Power Rangers/Pontiac Aztec cladding like the Soyo K7VME Barebones Bundle currently on sale @ Tiger and similar cases.

This same bundle is available with an OEM Celeron 2.7GHz + CPU Cooler for $70.00 more:

Wintergreen PM800-M2 Barebone Kit + Intel Celeron 2.7GHz
 
Originally posted by: yougotdeals
I misread the title at first as Walgreens ECS barebones and was wondering why a drugstore was selling motherboards.😕
Click to expand...

Me too! It must be a conspiracy, they must be beaming mind-control rays into our brains, crafty Walgreen's marketers, I say.

Interestingly enough, I find that my local Walgreens is the best place to pick up Maxell (Ritek) CD-Rs, either on sale or after rebate. They work as well as T-Ys for me.
 
I know about wintergreen rather well, stay away.:thumbsdown:

And no, I never got screwed on a deal, I just know of their business practices.
 
Well I have been screwed by them twice. Once I never got a rebate because they claim I mailed it too late (I mailed it the next day I got it, like with ALL rebates I get, I push them bad boys OUT THE DOOR ASAP.)

Second time was a stick of memory, something popular they carry. Forgot the name, but it was bad, the memory failed memtest and everything, total crap. I called tiger, they redirected me to the 'manufacture' who never picked up their phones, so I asked if tiger would do the RMA, they're like no we dont do that. Then I say I want to return it they're like well its a 25% restock fee. I went ahead and did that cus I was never going to get through to the 'manufacturer' because the phone number was bogus. I lost 15 bucks or so from the restock fee, plus shipping!

To make it worse, I never got the rebate for that ram, either. What a joke. This company should go out of business. Why buy from them when you can buy from others like Newegg and GoogleGear, people who aren't shady and appriciate your business, not trying to screw you.
 
Well, I got my barebones and I must say it is not at all bad!

Cheap, yes. The case is your standard $30 ATX chassis, but I've seen worse cases. The fit and finish is quite acceptable, but construction is typical. The PSU brand is OKIA, and the specs look reasonable, but who knows how accurate those are. I don't intend to install a 3.2GHz Prescott + R9800XT in this, more like a ~2GHz P4 or Celeron D + R8500LE.

Heck, I might try the integrated S3/VIA UniChrome Pro. Its alleged to be a big improvement over the 'regular' UniChrome graphics found on the KM400/KN400/P4M266/533, but a 'big improvement' over crap may still not amount to much.

The Optorite CD-RW came with the latest firmware. I received a Sony FDD in spite of the advertisement stating FDD was not included. So I got a bonus there, it would seem. The mouse, keyboard, and speakers are predictably inexpensive, but I wasn't expecting Logitech or Microsoft peripherals.

Motherboard is ECS PM800-M2 (Version 1.0), which includes an ACR/CNR type 56K software modem.

All things considered, its a hot deal on entry-level components. Given that the PM800-M2 can be had for about $55 delivered, approx. the same price as the barebones after rebates (including delivery), its like buying the mobo and getting the ATX case, CD-RW, mouse, keyboard, and speakers for free.

Can't beat free stuff!
 
in my experience, an ECS Mobo isn't worth the hassle of actually filling out a rebate and waiting, regardless of if it comes or not.

Of the two I've purchased, they both require frequent clearing of CMOS to make it past post, they both don't support the chips the manuals say they do (Yes, the settings were correct, flashed to most recent BIOS, too.) and they don't play nice with ANY video card I've put into them. ECS Mobos are more of a hassle than they are stable or useful.

Better luck to you people who want to go for this, but I'd steer clear if you are "just buying it to have it"
 
Originally posted by: yougotdeals
I misread the title at first as Walgreens ECS barebones and was wondering why a drugstore was selling motherboards.😕
Click to expand...

like Michael Jackson said:
You are not alone
 
The UPC codes on all of these machine are the same correct? If so does anyone have one they could e-mail me? I did a dumb thing and tossed the box before I checked...
 
Yeah, I know, I read the other posts...I've never had any trouble with them though...

Ran out of time on the 2 $20 ones, but I'm hoping that I can still cash in on the $100 one.

I don't want to screw up anyone's slim chance of getting a rebate by duplicating UPCs if they're different, but I'm pretty sure that they would all be the same. Can anyone give me a hand?
 
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